lazy
On October 10, 1973, Vice President Agnew resigned his office and then pleaded no contest to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution. Agnew was found to have accepted $29,500 in bribes while he was the Governor of Maryland. Prior to ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the US Constitution in 1967, no provision existed for filling a vacancy in the office of Vice President. As a result, the Vice Presidency was left vacant 16 times—sometimes for nearly four years—until the next ensuing election and inauguration: eight times due to the death of the sitting president, resulting in the Vice Presidents becoming President; seven times due to the death of the sitting Vice President; and once due to the resignation of Vice President John C. Calhoun to become a senator. The Twenty-fifth Amendment addresses how a vacancy in the offices of President and Vice-President are filled. In the latter case, whenever there is a vacancy in the office of Vice President, the President nominates a successor who becomes Vice President if confirmed by a majority vote of both Houses of the Congress.
Following Agnew's resignation, President Richard M. Nixon sought advice from senior Congressional leaders about a replacement. According to the Speaker of the House of Representatives at the time, Carl Albert, "We gave Nixon no choice but Ford."
Gerald Ford, who at the time was a Representative from Michigan's 5th District and House Minority Leader, was nominated to take Agnew's position on October 12. This was the first time the vice-presidential vacancy provision of the 25th Amendment had been implemented. The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford on November 27. Only three Senators, all Democrats, voted against Ford's confirmation: Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, Thomas Eagleton of Missouri and William Hathaway of Maine.
Ford still needed to be confirmed by a majority of the House of Representatives and that took place on December 6, 1973, when the House confirmed Ford by a vote of 387 to 35. One hour after the confirmation vote in the House, Ford took the oath of office as Vice President of the United States.
Ford's brief tenure as Vice-President was barely noticed by the media, who were preoccupied by the continuing revelations about the Watergate scandal. Following Ford's appointment, the Watergate investigation continued until Chief of Staff Alexander Haig contacted Ford on August 1, 1974, and told him that "smoking gun" evidence had been found. The evidence left little doubt that President Nixon had been a part of the Watergate cover-up. At the time, Ford and his wife, Betty, were living in suburban Virginia, waiting for their expected move into the newly designated vice president's residence in Washington, D.C. Ford later recalled that "Al Haig asked to come over and see me to tell me that there would be a new tape released on a Monday, and he said the evidence in there was devastating and there would probably be either an impeachment or a resignation. And he said, 'I'm just warning you that you've got to be prepared, that things might change dramatically and you could become President.' And I said, 'Betty, I don't think we're ever going to live in the vice president's house.'"
He was correct.